Archives

Scandal Is Back! ‘It’s Handled’ Recap

After what felt like ages, ‘Scandal’ has returned! All of you Gladiators know that the show can be very fast paced. All the characters talk like they’re in a room that’s running out of oxygen, so that makes it a little hard to keep up with at times. Despite that, I’ve decided to take on the challenge of recapping the show, so let’s get to it!

When we last saw Olivia Pope, she was sitting in the back of a limo with her dad Rowan, played by the fantastic Joe Morton. She was bombarded by reporters asking her about her affair with President Grant, not long after she had turned him down. You can’t bring your mistress into the White House, Fitz! He had turned into a drunk shell of his former self after finding out that he didn’t actually win his Presidency. Jake, the guy Fitz sent to look after her, revealed that she was only another case and ended up in “The Hole,” a place that Huck knows all too well. David Rosen got vindicated, but there are still some mysteries left to be solved. Like who leaked Olivia’s name to the press?

For starters, it wasn’t her dad! He sure wasn’t happy about the situation his daughter had gotten herself into though. He offers her a way out, leave the Country for a while until it all blows over. Olivia would rather stay and fight it out, but he hands her some tough love, and a speech that i’m sure lots of us black kids have heard before. She calls Cyrus who begs her to get off the plane while he tries to find out more about the leak. Defying her dad, she does and goes back to her Gladiators who are also trying to fix her mess. Meanwhile, Cyrus, the Prez and Vice Prez are trying to negotiate on how to handle this. Sally is the only person on the show that refuses to stick up and lie for Fitz. Cyrus asks his husband James for info on who the leak could have come from, and he tells him about the bar where loose lip Secret Service agents like to hang out with gossip columnists.

After being saved by Huck, Olivia arrives at her offices with almost no clients to speak of and even though they are worried, she tells her staff to focus on other things. The news gets a hold of a video showing Fitz leaving Olivia’s apartment building, proof enough that they were having an affair. Cyrus orders a “kill folder” on Olivia, which isn’t as scary as it sounds. Here we found out more about Olivia’s pre-Presidential booty call days. She was sent to boarding schools and was a bit of a party girl in college. Her mother died in a plane crash when she was 12, but why is it that even one of her closest friends, Cyrus, never knew any of this beforehand? Olivia then uses a private number to asks Fitz about Jake’s whereabouts, and later she meets in him some super secret room where for a second there I thought they were going to fall back into their old ways. Instead, they’re joined by Mellie who reluctantly agrees to say that Fitz and Olivia only had sex twice, once after he had been shot. So much for telling the truth.

Trying to be better to her than he is to his own wife, Fitz tells Sally to seize the moment and take advantage of the current crisis. To get Olivia off the hook, some poor aide named Janine was thrown under the bus. It works, and Olivia Pope & Associates take her on as a client. Which will either be great, or a total disaster. Mellie confronts Fitz about leaking Olivia’s name to the press, revealing that she set up Janine to be his other mistress.

This is the worst game of marital chess ever, and if a man is willing to let the entire world know that he was sexing someone else on the side to get rid of you, it might be time to call it quits. Of course Shonda Rhimes keeps throwing those curve balls at us. Cyrus comes home to find Charlie in house, his husband drugged, and I hope their daughter wasn’t harmed. He meets Rowan who gives him a folder that reveals something shocking about Fitz and Jake’s time in Iran. Dun dun dun!

So next week we’ll find out what horrible thing Fitz did this time. Didn’t you love that white Burberry coat Olivia wore during the secret meeting. Paired with a Prada bag, of course. Props to the music coordinator for using Rick James‘ “Super Freak” when Janine was “outed” as Fitz’s other mistress.

* * * * * *

Best lines of the episode:

Rowan: “Olivia you are getting on that plane come hell or high water, and I am the hell and the high water.”